Take it or leave it
by Rainripple
Summary: Luffy's first meal back in England is the best he's had in a week. Modern AU. First person.
That history trip had got to be the worst one I'd been on in a long time.

Maybe I'm exaggerating – it was ok I suppose. _Ok_. I mean, I certainly wouldn't have gone on the trip myself but Gramps wasn't having it. Kinda felt like I was being deported. Not to Australia like prisoners did in the old days of course - just to good old Belgium. All we did was visit graves to be honest but we did get to buy chocolate and eat waffles (SWEET JESUS FUCKING CHRIST YES). The steak was good too though it'll never beat Sanji's – _nothing_ beats Sanji's cooking.

Especially those baguettes for packed lunch. I'm still questioning their choice of filling- absolutely no trace of meat, just cabbage and carrots. Don't get me wrong, carrots are the best veg (not as good as meat though) but vegetable sandwiches or salads or anything like that aren't exactly high on my list of things I like.

I'm guessing you'd think I'm petulant for not eating that baguette.

We're all back in England now – me, Zoro and Usopp and all the others – but there's like, only 2 things on my mind. One is getting some good food into my stomach (none of the meals in the past 24 hours have been satisfying) and the other is how shit I'm feeling. Like literal shit. As in the fact that I've been unable to shit for the past day or so.

Not eating veg is _great_ – it's not like the teachers were forcing us to meet some daily quota of veg or something – but I'm beginning to realise that there is a point to them.

I was stuck on the toilet for about an hour last night with no success. Fucking spectacular. Not joking, I really am regretting not eating any veg over the duration of this trip.

At the moment, we're in a retail park to grab a quick meal before we carry on going home. I say quick but this queue is taking ages and I'm glancing around now to see if there's anywhere else with a shorter queue. I stomp over to the Chinese takeaway I've been eyeing.

I'm surprised there's no queue here; the food smells amazing. I get closer to the counter and somehow it's only then when I realise there's someone there. Weird considering he's like 6 ft 3 maybe but I guess I was too busy looking at the menu.

"Can I take your order?" he says with a fake, customer-service-esque smile.

"1 chicken katsu curry with chips s'il vous plait!" I say, randomly adding in French because why fucking not?

He taps it into the computer display thingy and looks back at me. "Anything else?"

"If I like it enough, maybe I'll get 3 more!"

I'm guessing he found that amusing – he looks more like he's smiling from amusement and not because he has to for the sake of being a good employee.

He gets to work preparing it and like always I get a conversation started.

"What's katsu?"

"It says it on the menu."

"D'ya like it?"

"Sure."

"What's your name?"

"Law."

"You have cool tats."

"Really?"

I whistle. "I bet Usopp would like those."

"Uhuh."

"You're not very talkative."

Law doesn't even attempt to hide the way he rolls his eyes. "I apologise sir-"

"Luffy."

"- _Luffy_ but I'm trying to get your order done as fast as possible. I'd appreciate not being distracted."

"I don't mind. Talking is fun."

"Well that's no surprise."

"You don't have to reply, I'm perfectly fine having one sided conversations as long as you're listening."

"K."

He says nothing else but I know he's still listening. How? I dunno, I can just tell ok. I continue to chatter.

"Y'know, your name always makes me think of those DS games, uhhh… Oh yeah! Ace attorney! Y'know, where that Wright dude goes…" I pause to slam on the counter to demonstrate and I shout, "OBJECTION!"

He snickers lightly before disappearing into the back to do something. Law comes back out a few minutes later and my eyes literally sparkle at seeing the steaming carton of food that surely must be mine.

I scurry off with it to find Usopp and Zoro. Only then do I open it and set my eyes on the curry. Of course I make short work of it and sweet Jesus Christ it really is as good as it looks. I'm not a fancy connoisseur or anything so I have no fancy descriptions to say about it. It's enough to make me go back for seconds at least.

"I want three of those now!"

Law laughs lightly. "Damn you're greedy."

I retort. "I just have a big stomach, that's all!"

Law is better than most at hiding how he feels but it's surprisingly easy for me to read him. Like, even if it wasn't for those goddamn bags under his eyes, I can tell he's not got as much energy as he pretends to. I mean, from personal experience, people who work at fast food places usually look tired or bored but he doesn't look quite like that yet.

"D'ya like it here?"

"It's ok. Bit inconvenient to get to."

"Why'd you work here then?"

"Help pays for my uni fees."

Jesus Christ, how many other jobs is he doing alongside this one? I'm not stupid enough to think he'd get paid a lot for working here.

"How much do they pay you?"

"…That's getting a little bit personal," he replies testily, giving me that look that says 'Can you kindly shut the fuck up?'

Some redhead dude comes in then – Jesus he's taller than Law is - and he starts trying to…what's the word, hit on him? Law stops pretending to be a model employee and drops his usual polite speech. I just watch for the next few minutes as the two of them hurl snarky, passive-aggressive responses at each other, back and forth until eventually Law just ushers the dude out with a bag of prawn crackers.

He's so obviously irritated that he's not even attempting to pretend again. I like knowing people's real personalities but I also like them happy.

"Why didn't you just punch him in the face?"

Law just replies with a 'Are you fucking serious' face before disappearing into the back again.

It's rather awkward just standing there by myself but thankfully Zoro and Usopp come to find me.

"Luffy~ what are you doing?" Usopp says, tapping his foot impatiently. "We're supposed to be leaving now."

I glance back at the door Law went through and then back at Usopp. "I'm waiting."

"You're not allowed food on the coach y'know?" Usopp says, as if he wasn't the one who smuggled 10 tubes of pringles on there a few days ago.

I just grin at Zoro. "You'll help me smuggle it on right?"

"Heh, of course," he replies with a smirk. "You'd get found out straight away if we left you to it. You better let me have some."

Usopp stares at us in consternation (I like that word) but then awkwardly mutters, "Well, uh, let me have some too."

Law comes back out then with the fake smile on his face again; it gets a little strained when Usopp yells something unintelligible and scoots out to hide around the corner. I don't know what he's doing because Law's not scary in the slightest.

"Are you with him?" he says, addressing Zoro. He just nods.

I dip a hand into the pocket of Zoro's pants and grab a random handful of change as I pass Law a £20 note. "Wait wait wait." I pick out a £2 coin and press that into his skinny hands as well. "Tip for you."

He frowns and looks at it pensively before looking back up. "Is there a reason for this?"

"Well duh, you just gave me the best meal I've had in weeks!"

Law sighs then, his hand scratching awkwardly at the back of his neck. "I'm not allowed to accept tips."

"Why?"

He shrugs. "Against regulations."

I pout. "God that sucks~" That's an awful rule to have – I certainly wouldn't have something as stupid as that if I had my say.

"Well either you take this back or I put it into the charity box."

He leaves it on the counter, thinking he's got the last say but he doesn't know me.

Signalling to Zoro, I snatch the opportunity when he's handing me my change back; I shove the tip back into his hands as me and Zoro grab the cartons, running away from the counter so he can't object. "Thanks Law! You better keep that!"

I only glimpse his indignant face for a brief second before I turn the corner. I don't see what Law does with the tip in the end. He might have kept it or he might have put it in the charity box; personally I hope it's the former.

I don't really care to be honest, I just wanted to show my appreciation that's all.


End file.
